cooling with limited amps

[kushtrees]

Hi everyone its still my 1st year growing and where I live its gotten hot, and as an intake/outake fan user I have found that my outside air is too hot to keep my air cool during the day.

I run my lights at night in flower but in veg there are 6 hours before it gets dark where lately my room has gotten up to 86 degrees and at night (with lights on) it gets to around 80-75. Its so hot now though that my flower room with lights off is 75+ at the hottest point in the day.

I have limited amps to cool my garage (it has a veg room and 2 flower rooms in it, total of 6800w) making it impossible to just get a fat mini split and run co2. My question is with limited amps could I get a portable 12000 btu AC put it in the garage (not the rooms) and use it to spot cool the garage so that the intake air is slghtly cooler than outside.

I can also put the AC in a seperate room entirely and just use intake fans to pull air from there if that would work better. Im only trying to cool a few degrees during the spring and summer time. Any way that I can get my rooms down a few degrees besdes a huge AC? Is this a plausible idea? Any help is welcome as I have never dealt with ACs before thanks everyone!

 

[Indicated]

Hi everyone its still my 1st year growing and where I live its gotten hot, and as an intake/outake fan user I have found that my outside air is too hot to keep my air cool during the day.

I run my lights at night in flower but in veg there are 6 hours before it gets dark where lately my room has gotten up to 86 degrees and at night (with lights on) it gets to around 80-75. Its so hot now though that my flower room with lights off is 75+ at the hottest point in the day.

I have limited amps to cool my garage (it has a veg room and 2 flower rooms in it, total of 6800w) making it impossible to just get a fat mini split and run co2. My question is with limited amps could I get a portable 12000 btu AC put it in the garage (not the rooms) and use it to spot cool the garage so that the intake air is slghtly cooler than outside.

I can also put the AC in a seperate room entirely and just use intake fans to pull air from there if that would work better. Im only trying to cool a few degrees during the spring and summer time. Any way that I can get my rooms down a few degrees besdes a huge AC? Is this a plausible idea? Any help is welcome as I have never dealt with ACs before thanks everyone!

contrary to what people think its not cooling the space, its removing the heat,thats what an a/c unit does,it moves heat from one place to another, Are your lights well vented? sounds like they are. Yes, just puting a portable a/c to cool the garage should work fine. as far as the ampacity, get a 240vac unit not a 120vac,hard to speak to weather a 12,000 btu will be enough with the limited info givin ,sounds like a fairly large garage, is it block or wood ?? attached or not shaded or not ect..I would probably get an 18,000 btu unit to have some capacity in the bank so to speak,,plus to small a unit will run to much and cause the humidity to drop quite a bit..Its allways better to have and not need than...within reason...the opposite would be its too large and cools to fast and cycles off causing very hight humidity..best is to figure what you need as well as possibile and go up one size (1/2ton) from there..

 

[kushtrees]

thnx indicated, good to kno the concept will work at least. the garage is wood and detached but close to the house so I can duct from one to the other. I couldnt put it on 240v w/o my dad or electrician coming in (im a college student with limited elcectrical experience) and since I only have this house for a few months more till I move im trying avoid that.

one issue is that during my 6 extra light hours for veg the sun is full blast on that garage and ive already adjusted wen I run my lights a lot

Humidity is pretty low these days my dehumidifiers barely go on
as far as venting lights everything but my 3400w barebulb room is cooled (which is also the one that gets the hottest no suprise)

My idea right now is to get a 12000-18000 btu portable ac to cool the garage as much as it can, then when I move and consolidate my grow into one room use it to cool a seperate room and use that room as intake air for my 10kw grow... any opinions suggests problems with this? all advice is great guys thnx

 

[CannabisJohn]

thnx indicated, good to kno the concept will work at least. the garage is wood and detached but close to the house so I can duct from one to the other. I couldnt put it on 240v w/o my dad or electrician coming in (im a college student with limited elcectrical experience) and since I only have this house for a few months more till I move im trying avoid that.

one issue is that during my 6 extra light hours for veg the sun is full blast on that garage and ive already adjusted wen I run my lights a lot

Humidity is pretty low these days my dehumidifiers barely go on
as far as venting lights everything but my 3400w barebulb room is cooled (which is also the one that gets the hottest no suprise)

My idea right now is to get a 12000-18000 btu portable ac to cool the garage as much as it can, then when I move and consolidate my grow into one room use it to cool a seperate room and use that room as intake air for my 10kw grow... any opinions suggests problems with this? all advice is great guys thnx

Portables are very inefficient and cost the most to run compared to a mini split or window unit. But in ur case this would be a good alternative for this grow. After ur move look into a window or mini split unit. Mini is cheapest to run but most expensive to get and install. I would not run an a/c unit to cool a room to draw supply air for ur lights. Why not size ur room a/c to cool the room in all temps?

 

[spiderman]

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Evaporative_cooler

 

[kushtrees]

cannabis john I was just about to post a question in you thread but since you were kind enough to help me out Ill ask it here :)

Just wanted to say amazing work with all the AC help youve provided to the farm that 70 page thread taught me more about ACs than anything else (and i havent even finished yet)

Anyways my 10kw grow (all medical and legal) when I move will consist of 10 600w lights and 4 1000w lights all vertical barebulb in a 10x20 space. No co2 until I get things figured out more so I will be running 2 12 inch exhausts with a 12 inch intake fan for ventilation. All lights will be on 240v as well as what ever AC I get.
At the moment Im thinking of getting a kwikool portable AC 2 ton and putting it in my room they are supposed to be good portable units though they are quite expensive, but for someone with no AC experience it looks like a good easy option. If possible I would like to get a mini split for the room but that really depends on the location and whether I can find someone to help me put it in.

CJ I would love to hear your opinion on the size of the AC needed for that room I know that 1000w put out 3400 btu but I wasnt sure how much 600w do and with ventilation and no co2 im not sure how to calculate size needed. And was wondering what you thought of kwikool ACs I want to make sure I get the right AC before I go spend a ton of money. thanks for all the help!:)

 

[GanjaAL]

a fujitsu mini split uses a 20 amp breaker and runs the same amps as a swamp cooler. It will cost you but well worth it for 24k worth of cooling.

ps. also if you have someone do it... make sure the room is clear of anything incriminating and tell them it is your hobby room.

 

[CannabisJohn]

cannabis john I was just about to post a question in you thread but since you were kind enough to help me out Ill ask it here :)

Just wanted to say amazing work with all the AC help youve provided to the farm that 70 page thread taught me more about ACs than anything else (and i havent even finished yet)

Anyways my 10kw grow (all medical and legal) when I move will consist of 10 600w lights and 4 1000w lights all vertical barebulb in a 10x20 space. No co2 until I get things figured out more so I will be running 2 12 inch exhausts with a 12 inch intake fan for ventilation. All lights will be on 240v as well as what ever AC I get.
At the moment Im thinking of getting a kwikool portable AC 2 ton and putting it in my room they are supposed to be good portable units though they are quite expensive, but for someone with no AC experience it looks like a good easy option. If possible I would like to get a mini split for the room but that really depends on the location and whether I can find someone to help me put it in.

CJ I would love to hear your opinion on the size of the AC needed for that room I know that 1000w put out 3400 btu but I wasnt sure how much 600w do and with ventilation and no co2 im not sure how to calculate size needed. And was wondering what you thought of kwikool ACs I want to make sure I get the right AC before I go spend a ton of money. thanks for all the help!:)

I use 4000 btus/hr for every kw of lights for air cooled lights. I use 5000 for unvented lights. What temps do u want to maintain in ur room with lights on? Also what is your high temp in summer where room is? So anyway I would get a 4 ton for your 10kw grow ( that actually is 4800 btus/hr per 1 kw.). Since your lights are vented if you can get a Kiwkool in 3.5 tons you should be golden. If not a 4 ton will be a little oversized but not any where near enough to cause problems. Kwikool are overpriced but they appear to work better than most portables. But by far portables are most expensive to run. Best of luck.